Emergency Operations

Textile Plant Production Hall Burns in Poland

Flames gutted the production hall at a textile factory in Poland Saturday.

Photo Courtesy of KP PSP Ostrzeszow

Rapidly spreading flames destroyed a production hall and warehouse storage at a textile factory in southeast central Poland Saturday morning.

Firefighters contained and controlled the fire within two hours, saving the factory's administrative building and a massive tent used for storage, the State Fire Service reports.

The factory produced products from textiles such as specialized numismatic packaging, pillows, mattresses, cardboard packaging and other items.

Responders raced the 12.5 kilometers from the prowiat or county seat in Ostrzeszow to the fire in Mikstat-Pustkow.

"After the arrival of the first fire brigade units, it turned out that the fire covered the production hall," the SFS website reports. "The flames were about five meters above the roof and there was very strong smoke."

Fortunately, the factory was not in operation at the time of the fire. After disconnecting the utilities, firefighters concentrated on delivering water to the fire and cooling exposures such as the administration building.

More firefighting help soon arrived from Ostrzeszow and neighboring prowiats. One such mutual aid responders brought breathing apparatus. Likewise, a tanker arrived from Wielkopolski and a heavy firefighting vehicle responded from Kalisz.

At the height of the fire 42 firefighters representing 15 fire brigades were on the scene.

Fire operations ended after seven hours. The production hall, including machinery, inventory and vehicles were declared a total loss estimated at 4 million PLN ($1.026 million in U.S. currency).